Question: from a young age everyone learns how to speak, read and write but how does your brain learn how to do this being so young?

Joseph Devlin answered on 25 Mar 2010:

Wow, excellent question, Christy. Learning to speak and learning to read/write appear to be very different things. Kids almost can’t help learning to speak. If you put them in an environment where they interact with any form of speaking, they’ll learn to speak — they can’t help it. You pretty much have to be raised by wolves to grow up without speaking.

In contrast, learning to read and write is damned hard. It takes loads (and loads!!!) of explicit training in school and at home and then years of practice. And even so, many children will find it difficult and develop difficulties with reading and writing.

So there is a sense that the human brain is hardwired to learn to speak in some form but this definitely does not include reading and writing. That is a much more recent development than spoken language and takes a lot of practice. Exactly what has changed in the human brain that allows us to use language remains a mystery and that is the central question of my research program. Everyone has their own ideas, but I tend to think that what makes human brains different from other primates is the way it is wired up. I think that humans have extra connections not found in other species that let some brain areas interact in new ways that enables language. This is the hypothesis that we pursue in my lab.

I’ve discussed a few related points in early Qs so I’ll dig up those links and add them here in a minute, in case they are of interest.

thanks for your Q!